#moon_knight | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dbarajas03-blog · 6 years

Photo

MOON KNIGHT

Marc Spector was the son of a rabbi whose family had fled Europe in the 1930s to escape the Holocaust. As Marc matured, he rejected his father's morality and embraced materialism. He became a heavyweight boxer, then a U.S. Marine, and then a CIA operative. The Egyptians who worship the ancient gods find Spector and carry him to their temple. Helpless before the statue of Khonshu, Spector's heart stops. Khonshu appears to him in a vision, offering Spector a second chance at life if he becomes the god's avatar on Earth.

Powers and Abilities

Over the course of his life as a boxer, U.S. Marine, mercenary, and costumed superhero, Marc Spector has become an expert at hand-to-hand combat techniques and martial arts such as Boxing, Kung Fu, Eskrima, Judo, Karate, Ninjutsu, Savate, and Muay Thai. He is an Olympic-level athlete and a skilled acrobat and gymnast and excels as a combat strategist. He employs a variety of weapons over the course of his career, including throwing darts, nunchaku, bo staff, and a truncheon. He is skilled with most weapons and an expert with throwing weapons. Spector gained his superhuman powers as a result of a visitation by the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Moon Knight's strength, endurance, and reflexes are enhanced depending upon the phases of the moon. The fuller the moon, the more strength Moon Knight derives from it, though even during a new moon, he can lift several hundred pounds. It's not known how much of this strength is mystical and how much is simply the result of self-hypnosis due to his psychological instability. Due to his multiple personalities, he is also resistant to some psychic attacks and sometimes receives prophetic visions. Moon Knight is shown to possess a very high tolerance for pain such as ignoring a bullet wound through his leg while only letting off a slight grunt of pain. At one point, Moon Knight is given special weapons by the cult of Khonshu, including bolas, golden throwing crescent-darts shaped like scarabs, an ivory boomerang, throwing irons, and a golden stick in the shape of an ankh that glowed in the presence of danger that can be used as a throwing weapon or bludgeon. During the third series, Moon Knight's silver-white costume includes adamantium, and he acquires an array of high-tech weaponry including an adamantium staff, a truncheon capable of firing a cable line, and gauntlets that fire crescent darts.

Bio

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Marc Spector is a Jewish-American rabbi's wayward son. As an adult, Spector had been a heavyweight boxer before becoming a U.S. Marine, afterward, he left the United States military to become a mercenary. He later becomes a strong and skilled combatant and befriends the French pilot Jean-Paul DuChamp, whom he affectionately calls "Frenchie". While working for the African mercenary Raoul Bushman in Egypt, the group stumbles upon an archaeological dig whose crew includes Dr. Peter Alraune and his daughter Marlene. The dig had uncovered an ancient temple where artifacts included a statue of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Intent on looting the dig, Bushman kills Dr. Alraune. In response to Alraune's murder, Spector challenges Bushman to personal combat and is defeated by Bushman and left to die in the sub-zero temperatures of the desert night. The Egyptians who worship the ancient gods find Spector and carry him to their temple. Helpless before the statue of Khonshu, Spector's heart stops. Khonshu appears to him in a vision, offering Spector a second chance at life if he becomes the god's avatar on Earth. Spector awakens, wraps himself in the silver shroud that covers Khonshu's statue, and again confronts Bushman. He defeats Bushman and returns to America with Marlene Alraune, Frenchie, and the statue of Khonshu. Deciding to become a crimefighter, Spector creates a silver cloaked costume, based on the silver shroud, and becomes Moon Knight aka "The Fist of Khonshu".After his return to the United States, Spector invests the money that he had accumulated as a mercenary and develops a small fortune. To distance himself from his mercenary past, he creates the identity of millionaire entrepreneur Steven Grant, using this identity to purchase a spacious estate. To remain in contact with the street and criminal element, he also creates the identity of taxicab driver Jake Lockley and has acquired civilian allies such as Bertrand Crawley and Gena Landers and her sons. In the character's first appearance, the criminal organization the Committee supplies Marc Spector with the name Moon Knight, his costume and weapons (using silver) to hunt down Jack Russell. In Los Angeles, Moon Knight captures the Werewolf for the Committee, but then frees him and halts the Committee's plans, fighting Russell again. He battles Conquer-Lord, teams up with Spider-Man to fight Cyclone, and fights Lupinar and his brother Randall, the Hatchet-Man. His origin of being "created by The Committee" is explained as a ruse set up by Frenchie so Marc can shut the Committee down. He then encounters the Midnight Man and returns to Chicago to prevent the poisoning of its water supply by a group called the Werewolves, encounters Morpheus and teams with Daredevil to fight the Jester. It is around this time that he first encounters Stained Glass Scarlet. Later, he battled the Werewolf once again, battled Bora, and met the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and Doctor Strange.

Significance

While his similarities to Batman are hard to deny, his differences make him a more interesting study for the concept of 'hero'. His origin story has a heavy religious angle, which Marvel has been known to tip-toe around when it comes to adapting heroes for television and movies. His powers were granted to him by the Egyptian moon god Khonshu after he lost a fight and was left for dead in the desert. Although the degree to which his powers are enhanced are dependent on the phases of the Moon (honestly such a cool idea right there), he maintains superior martial arts abilities and is a master with most weapons both melee and range. Which means he has tons of gadgets and knows how to use them. At times, he is an uber-violent vigilante who fights for his Moon god. He's like Batman with religious conviction which is why Moon Knight needs to be more explored and made more public as he is one of those characters that fall under the radar.

Resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Knight

https://www.marvel.com/characters/moon-knight-marc-spector

2 notes · View notes